Regarding sound quality
#1
I just had a question about sound emulation quality. Specifically, I tested out FFXII with 0.9.7. Graphically I have it bumped up to 1440 x 900, DX10, etc. Runs great, looks fantastic, constant 60 FPS, no problems.

However, the sound, or more specifically, the sound quality of the music is rather off. By that I mean it's tinny, missing instruments, and has a general "MIDI"-ish sound to it. Compare that to the soundtrack, which is listenable on YouTube, and it's a world of difference and is very, very rich. It's not a matter of stuttering or slow music - everything is up to speed - but no matter which plug-in I use, nor the setting, the music leaves much to be desired. I did try plugging in SPU2 1.9.0, but it must not be compatible with the beta because every time I change settings and hit OK, they revert back to the default, which makes it impossible to experiment. As for the two plug-ins that come with the 0.9.7 beta, SPU2-X can get a decent but very lacking sound, but ZeroSPU sounds much worse.

I hate to sound whiny, and I appreciate the work that has gone into the sound plugins. Not dissing them at all - just wondering if I need to do something differently, or if the current state of sound emulation for the game is just yet to be worked on. Thanks!
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#2
Possibly that recording you saw was done with 5.1 and enhanced interpolation. The stereo sounds too tiny in comparison indeed. Have you tried it?

For me the emulator sounds far better than the console itself, but I can't compare because the sound hardware is far better in my computer too.
Imagination is where we are truly real
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#3
The soundtrack is not a recording of the SPU2 output of a PS2. It is done some other way.
We have recordings of the PS2 output and of what SPU2-X generates and the only difference
is the reverb quality.
Proper reverbiation makes a good difference in sound quality and we indeed only have rudimentary support for it now.
It's not a deal breaker though.

Set SPU2-X mixing to async and enjoy the game. The sound gets a little better from that Tongue2
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#4
The soundtracks and the actual music you get on the games are not always the same, if anything compare it to the sound on your PS2 or at least some gameplay video (not made with PCSX2) on youtube.
Core i5 3570k -- Geforce GTX 670  --  Windows 7 x64
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#5
OK, I'm not sure if I worded this well. Let's try again.

The music of the game, as it sounds on a real PS2 which I just verified with my PS2 and retail copy of the game, is MUCH better than it is with any plug-in and any setting I have tried with PCSX2. I've tried SPU2-X with async and it still sounds very crappy, thin and tinny compared to the actual PS2 sound output. It's definitely missing more than proper reverb - there are notes and percussion missing, and the quality is very rough. Same goes for the voices - they sound very compressed. Tried bumping up the interpolation, but I can't hear much of a difference.

Thanks for reading at least. I'll just play it with crappy resolution but nice sound on the actual PS2, I suppose.
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#6
I suppose you are comparing in equal conditions, the same actual sound hardware, that includes the amplifiers and loudspeakers. So I can understand the original sound is better than the plugins (although even this can change with the time).

There is another factor too, the hardware acceleration is gone in the directsound for windows Vista and seven, and this affected PC games too, hence things like the Creative Alchemy and others workarounds to recover EAX and ambient sounds. PCSX2 is still being developed, and it's a bit unfair making direct comparisons with the console itself, it's purpose is not actually substitute it or be better even if someday the PC hardware will make it possible and probably will happen as happened already with previous emulators for simpler consoles.

Here it does not happens because the TV used to play the consoles (actually it is practically abandoned now) has a very poor sound system where the computer has a much better setup. In that scenery I can't compare, it would be unfair to the console.

But you found your own solution and so it's alright, the important is being happy and having fun.
Imagination is where we are truly real
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#7
nosisab Ken Keleh: Sound hardware acceleration has nothing to do with it. Tongue2

adoru:
Testing sound quality by ear is very hard ><
Missing samples however can be heard, so if you can make a recording of that and verify it, it'd help.
Missing reverb or wrong reverb is definitely a big difference. It goes as far as making it *seem*
like something (even full samples) is missing.

Check this out to see that I'm not making it up.
(And to what length emudev can go Laugh )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3KGd2H-ZoA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz0wwMk2k4c

It's a recording of a strongly reverberated sample off of my ps2 and off of SPU2-X as it does reverb currently.

Edit:
Here's another one that shows how badly a wrong reverb can influence the whole sound impression:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhOl1AMdRgM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0T9Oulz_HI
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#8
Thanks for the info. Just to be clear, like I said originally, I'm not being critical of the devs here. I love their work. I just wondered if I was doing something wrong.

I'll try and make some recordings over the next few days. Smile
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#9
Quote: nosisab Ken Keleh: Sound hardware acceleration has nothing to do with it.

Good to learn it, I was wrongly thinking the loss of some ambient sounds was because that Smile
Imagination is where we are truly real
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